Having dominated the Rangers for more than two periods Monday night, the Devils weren’t shocked that their rivals and explosive coach John Tortorella seem prepared to turn the Eastern Conference finals into three-game street fight for the right to advance to the Stanley Cup finals.

“I think the intensity is only going to rise from here,” Devils captain Zach Parise predicted. “There’s a lot at stake and I think we’re ready for that challenge. We’ll be all right.”

Parise and goaltender Martin Brodeur were the primary forces as the Devils found a way to frustrate goalie Henrik Lundqvist and the Rangers, 4-1, in Game 4 before a sellout crowd of 17,625 at the Prudential Center to even the best-of-seven series at two games apiece.

Game 5 will be played Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden.

“I think the best hockey is yet to come,” Brodeur said. “It’s going down to the wire. It’s been a great series so far and I don’t expect anything different in the next three games. We’re looking forward to going to Madison Square Garden and try to steal a game in there.

“Right now it’s a best out of three and they have two games on their home ice. It’s going to be a tough task for us, but we put ourselves in that situation and we’re looking forward to that challenge.”

Parise scored a power play goal, an empty net goal and assisted on one by Travis Zajac, but it was the way the Rangers acted in the third period with the game still within reach that will be remembered.

After running over defenseman Peter Harrold behind the net, former Devils forward Mike Rupp skated out and punched Brodeur in the chest with 13:42 remaining.

“It kind of stung me a little bit,” Brodeur said after joking, “I’m a tough guy. I kind of didn’t know what to do, really. It hurt my jaw a little bit. He hit me in the chest and I think his fist went up to my mask. It kind of surprised me more than anything, but now I know I can take a punch.”

The fact that it was Rupp didn’t make a difference.

“I didn’t expect anything to happen, Rupp or no Rupp,” Brodeur said. “I never got punched like that in my career. It was the first time. They’re just things that happen in a playoff series. I’m just happy I didn’t get hurt on it.”

It prompted Steve Bernier to take a running leap toward Rupp, who wound up with a double minor for roughing and a 10-minute misconduct penalty.

“I ended up on the ground,” Bernier said.

Rupp was not available for comment after the game.

“I’m not certain how to characterize that,” Harrold said of the punch to Brodeur. “It’s not the smartest thing he’s done. It’s clearly not something we can tolerate. Marty’s our guy.”

Brodeur stopped 28 of 29 shots and came within 5:05 of a shutout before Ruslan Fedotenko scored the only Rangers goal.

“The way he was playing, he was lights out,” Zajac said.

While the two teams squared off near the Devils’ goal mouth, Tortorella stepped down from behind the visitors’ bench and yelled toward Devils’ counterpart Pete DeBoer, leaning around the glass separating the two teams.

DeBoer did the same and the two exchanged words until Tortorella eventually left.

“He’s a coach that always has his players’ back,” David Clarkson said of DeBoer.

Although it was Salvador’s shot from the point that gave the Devils a 1-0 lead at 8:10 of the opening period and surely put some doubt in Lundqvist’s mind, Parise was a force.

He skated past Michael Del Zotto and avoided a sliding Dan Girardi to set up Zajac’s goal at 11:59 of the first. Then he scored a crushing power play goal after 2:41 of the third period when Lundqvist couldn’t hold the rebound of Ilya Kovalchuk’s shot.

The Devils would’ve been facing elimination had they lost this one.

“This was a very important game for us, especially because we couldn’t lose two in a row, especially at home,” Kovalchuk said. “Every game is more and more important. The next game will be even more important.”

Now it is the Rangers who appear flustered.

“We hope we’re frustrating them,” Salvador said. “Time will tell. It was the same strategy we had with Philly, not to get involved in those plays and try to play whistle to whistle. Hopefully we can frustrate them and have them take penalties.”